The (Un)Life of King Lewyn
by Zantetsuken Reverse
Summary: ENDGAME SPOILERS! Crack. Lewyn's dead. A look into all the problems his new... life entails as a result. Includes zombie, ghoul, vampire, ghost, any any suggested undead monsters.
1. Chapter 1

Just a bunch of silly ideas on how being a resurrected corpse would affect Lewyn and his life. I'm making a bunch of these, for what different kinds of undead he could be. I have ghost, vampire, ghoul…

The (un)Life of King Lewyn

No one actually knew where (the _de jure_ King of Silesia) Lewyn went when he wasn't needed. He had an uncanny knack for not being on the battlefield, and somehow arriving at the castles just as Seliph seized them. Most of the older members of the Liberation Army paid Lewyn's antics no mind, as they had gotten used to him in the last Holy War. The younger generation, however, started making theories about where Lewyn was going and what he was doing.

"He's doing research," Seliph insisted. "He tells me about the enemy and the conditions of the towns we visit before we get there."

"Then where does he go after that?" asked Ced. "He hangs around camp sometimes and does promotions, but he disappears right before we sortie."

"Probably singing for coin somewhere," said Patty. "Or out drinking."

That Fee and Ced didn't immediately admonish Patty for insinuating that their father was a drunkard probably spoke volumes about their relationship with Lewyn.

"Hey, Julia, you've been living with Lewyn for a while," said Faval. "What does he do when he's out?"

Julia shook her head "Lewyn… didn't let me out of his sight, so I saw a lot of him. He did play for coin, but that was to support us. I've never seen him drink, either. He mostly just sleeps."

While no one believed Julia to be a liar, no one actually thought that this was the case. Ironically enough, that was actually the truth.

Lewyn was a zombie. No, that is not a gross metaphor on his sleep habits, he's actually a corpse resurrected by a dragon. After being killed by Manfroy, Forseti had appeared before Lewyn and offered him time on the earth in exchange for fulfilling Forseti's goals. Lewyn had accepted, and never regretted it since.

However, there were many times when Lewyn almost regretted it. His life no longer belonged to him, he could no longer fight to protect those who he cared for, and he was forbidden to become close to his own children. But besides the emotional pains, Lewyn also had to deal with the needs of the undead. Contrary to popular belief, zombies don't eat brains. They can't eat anything. Lewyn's body had to recharge by other means.

The power of Forseti allowed Lewyn to recharge by sunlight, but sunlight was a poor substitute for food. Lewyn no longer had the energy to fight, let alone one-shot all of his enemies like he used to.

Sleeping preserved precious energy, so Lewyn usually slept the day away whenever it was cloudy out. Back when he took care of Julia, he told her that 'no one wants to listen to a bard when it's raining,' and she accepted this axiom without doubt.

Unfortunately, a sleeping Lewyn was almost indistinguishable from a dead Lewyn. That had caused a lot of problems in the past, especially right after his death and before he had Julia.

Lewyn was already used to the life of a wanderer from his youth, so he had not expected his new (un)life to be that different. The added danger was a given, but the undead factor played far too often for his liking.

One day, Lewyn walked from Heirhein to Nordion on his winterly migration to Verdane. He couldn't feel the cold, but the lack of sunlight was a problem. The weather had unexpectedly turned stormy, so he was forced to seek shelter underneath one of the castle's door frames.

The next morning, at around dawn, Lewyn woke up buried underneath a small pile of bodies. A priest was droning in the background, and Lewyn could barely make out the words.

"…my son, gaze upon the horrors… in ashes, there is fire…"

Normally, Lewyn wouldn't have purposefully alerted someone to his state of undeath. But he was pretty much drained of energy, the corpses above him were blocking all but a small window of sunlight, the corpses were starting to _smell_… and the priest went on droning his prayer.

So Lewyn let out a loud groan, hoping that the priest would assume that he was simply a drunk dumped on a mass grave. The priest stopped chanting.

"Peter, go check."

Lewyn heard a small boy's footsteps run towards him and the sound of someone slowly shifting the bodies above him. In a surprisingly short amount of time, the young boy had shifted the bodies off of Lewyn enough so that Lewyn could emerge without breaking anything.

As soon as the priest caught sight of Lewyn, he gasped. "B-by Blaggi!"

The boy beamed. "It's a miracle, Father!"

Lewyn took the time to stumble and feign a hangover. "Th-thank you, f-f-f-Faather…" he moaned. "M-must have had t-too much to drink last night…"

The priest looked horrified, for some reason. Strange, thought Lewyn. Anyone who can pray at a pile of dead bodies should be able to stomach a drunk…

And then Lewyn felt some sharp thing sticking at least an inch out of his chest. He looked down. It was a dagger.

He poked it. Yup, that was his heart. He really should be dead by now. Surprisingly, there wasn't any blood spurting out. Hm… What could he do?

Option one: I can laugh and say, "Got you!" (That would make him angry)

Option two: I can roll my eyes back and pretend to be a zombie. (That would also make him angry)

Option three: I can roll my eyes back, pretend to be a zombie, and do the moonwalk. (I can't slide on grass)

Option four: I can pretend I'm not hurt. (Probably will get me into more trouble)

Option five: I can pay the guy to pretend this never happened. (That would offend him. Plus, I'm pretty sure that I'm out of cash)

Option six: Pretend the knife is fake.

Option seven: Like six, but better.

He looked up at the priest. "Must have been a rough night, eh?" he smiled weakly. "Did the troupe leave me behind?"

The priest tried to collect his thoughts. "Er… I… do not believe that I saw any… troubadours in the city…"

"No, I'm pretty sure that there was a circus trope that passed by," Lewyn insisted. "You must have missed it."

"Ah, yes… haha… we might have missed the circus, Peter," said the priest. It was much easier for him to wrap his mind around the idea of missed circus than the notion that a dead man was walking. Because dead people _did not_ spontaneously come back to life.

Peter looked at Lewyn, and back at the priest. "But we've been in Nordion for-"

"The _circus trope_ that had the act with the _fake knives_," said Lewyn.

"Aha… it looks like some of your friends might have been a bit careless…" said the priest. "Lucky that you're _not dead_, eh?"

Peter looked confused. "But he wasn't breathing when we-"

The priest cuffed Peter lightly. "He must have been breathing _very lightly_, then."

"Yes… ha…ha…" Lewyn said. "Well, I had best be off… I need catch up with everyone… ha…"

_That was a close one_, thought Lewyn as he walked off, leaving the stunned priest and the confused boy. _I'll never sleep outside a castle or a village again_.

Unfortunately, before Lewyn took in Julia, inns were just as much as a problem. Some inns were honest and didn't rob patrons in the night. Lewyn had stayed at a few, and found his throat slit in the night. The innkeepers always looked pale when he greeted them the next morning and inquired about his lost possessions, but no one could say anything without exposing the fact that they killed him in the night. But even good inns could be pretty bad, too.

During one winter in Verdane, Lewyn spent most of his days wandering the country, playing music, and gathering information on the politics of the world. The empire had not really bothered with subjugating Verdane after Sigurd's band of merry men had invaded it (Lewyn privately wondered why Prince Jamke stayed with the army when he could have claimed the throne), so Verdane was a good place for political exiles to stop by. The sun wasn't constant, but it was the sunniest place in Jugdral during the winter. Lewyn privately wished that he could see a Silesian winter again, but knew that it could never happen.

Anyways, after a tiring day of walking, Lewyn checked into an inn to sleep. He also paid one of the maids to wake him up at dawn.

The next morning, rather than being shaken awake or even having a bucket of water dumped on him, Lewyn woke up to screaming.

He jolted awake, grabbing his Wind on instinct, and looked around the room. One of the maids was standing over his bed, her face pale and her mouth wide open. She appeared to have stopped screaming the moment Lewyn sat up.

"Good morning," he said cheerfully. "Did something happen?"

The maid (unfortunately not the fainting type) whimpered. "Y-your pulse… your heart wasn't beating…"

Lewyn fumbled for an excuse. He really should come up with a list these days. "Well, you see, I have a condition that-"

"EYAAAAHH! Zombie! ZOMBIE!" The maid screamed and ran downstairs. Moments later, Lewyn heard men's voices and the sound of weapons being drawn.

Ten minutes later, Lewyn was running away from a mob of villagers wielding torches, scythes, and pitchforks, as well as Archers with flaming arrows and Shamans with light tomes.

But probably the worst problems with Lewyn's undeath came from being attacked by bandits. When he stayed at a village, he would normally let the mercenaries the village hired to take care of them (mercenaries were making a real profit these days), occasionally taking down a few bandits who got too close to the houses. Castles were never attacked by bandits, unless they were particularly stupid. The road was the biggest danger when it came to bandits.

The first time he was attacked, he easily dispatched them using his Wind. And then he passed out from the effort. Lewyn then resolved not to use magic unless it was an emergency.

That became a problem the next time he was waylaid.

"Hold!" shouted a large man with an axe. "Stand and deliver!"

Lewyn sighed and crossed his arms. "Look, I don't want a fight, but I don't have very much money. I'm not fit enough to even try fighting any of you, and I'm male, so you won't get very much from selling me. Unless you go to a highly specialized market. If that's the case, I'm not a virgin. I have two kids."

The axe man looked confused. "So… are you surrendering?"

Lewyn shrugged. "Sure. Take all my stuff. Can I keep my scarf? And my flute? And my underwear?"

The bandits really didn't want to go to the trouble of slaughtering a defenseless man who had no intention of fighting back. Unfortunately, the next bandits who came along weren't willing to negotiate with a penniless man.

"Stand and deliver!" shouted another man with an axe.

"I already gave all my money to the last bandits who came along," said Lewyn smoothly. "I am also frail, male, and not a virgin."

"You sure?" said the axe man menacingly.

"Yes, I'm sure. I have a wife and two kids (they don't live here, so unless you want to cross half the continent and several mountains)-"

The axe man smashed Lewyn's shoulder with his axe. Lewyn just crossed his arms. "You know that won't change anything. I'm completely unarmed and not a threat to you at all."

The axe man and his men (bandits tended to be rather non inclusive) staggered back. "Y-you're a monster!"

"You can't kill me, I can't hurt you. How about we stop here and call it a day?"

Then the axe man fainted.

Pretty much every time run in with bandits ended with him either giving them his money, letting them mutilate him, or rarely calling for help. All that had to change once he adopted Julia.

With Julia around, Lewyn was never mistaken for a corpse in inns again, but that added a new set of problems. As a young, defenseless girl (and no way to get Light magic tomes), Julia was in danger of being kidnapped and sold into slavery, at least more so than Lewyn was.

At first, Lewyn had forbidden Julia to leave the inn when they stayed so that she could vouch for him. Later, he forbade her to leave the room without him.

Things were fine during the first years after he met Julia, but Julius's (or rather, Loptyr's) influence began to spread and more people were coming after Julia for her Major Naga blood.

One of the reasons why Lewyn gave Julia to Seliph to take care of was because he was exhausted from using so much magic to take care of her. The business that he had to take care of was to go away and get a lot of rest and sunlight.

But that's another story.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Sunlight is a weird thing. But the other idea I had was recharging through wind, which I didn't think would work out. Yeah, Forseti is the wind god, but how would he convert wind energy to nutrients? Photosynthesis is more plausible.


	2. Chapter 2

Whoops… I wrote half the chapter writing Lewyn as Llewyn before I caught my mistake.

I have no experience with hunting or cleaning meat, or even camping. So if I get something wrong, that's why.

The (un)Life of King Lewyn

There were many things that the sagas left out about the Liberation Army for reasons such as continuity, lost plot threats, and just lack of time. One such detail was that the army was forced to spend most nights camping.

One night, the army had no choice but to camp out almost right next to a battlefield. While the most of the soldiers stayed in the forest to pitch camp, the archers Faval and Lester went out hunting and thief Patty returned to the battlefield in hopes of finding any loot she had missed. She knew the looter's unspoken law against attacking fellow looters; they flocked to the battlefield _after_ the fight for a reason, after all.

With that in mind, Patty snuck across the body-littered field, sack and sword in hand. She picked up weapons that didn't seem too broken, rummaged through pockets for loose change, and took the clothes off of some of the richer knights.

Two hours later, Patty hadn't made much progress. Either the knights here weren't getting paid, or all of them had spent too much time in castle towns. She only had a thousand, maybe two thousand gold's worth of coins, a few cheap swords, some old clothes, and a nice mantle. Frustrated, she turned over another soldier. And almost screamed.

Someone—or something—had mutilated the body. The heart was ripped out, and the intestines flopped on the ground. The lungs were leaking some kind of liquid, and the liver…

Patty had seen more than her share of dead bodies. She had even made a few. But killing was supposed to be efficient. Doing something like this to a body is just…

_It must have been an animal_, Patty told herself. _A pack of scavengers could have done this…_

She searched around, and found a few more messily carved bodies that had been carefully flipped over so that the ripped flesh wasn't visible on the outside. _It definitely wasn't an animal that was doing this, then_. Patty gulped.

Back in the orphanage, the older kids would tell stories to scare the little kids. Patty spent too much time on the receiving end of those tales… _The werewolf comes out at night to eat the bad little children_… Patty gulped. _Vampires rise from their crypts to drink the blood of maidens_… Whenever she got too scared, Patty used to hug Faval and cry… but Faval wasn't here. _The Phantom stole away girls who sung brightly…_

"Hey!"

"Eep!" Patty yelped, spun around and slashed the air with her Wind Sword. Lester almost fell off his horse trying to dodge the air blast.

"Ouch…" said Lester. "Was that really necessary?"

Faval turned towards his cousin. "Given that we're in the middle of a war and in the middle of a battlefield, I'd say yup."

Lester scowled. "That was why I yelled before I got close."

Even in the fading light, Patty could still recognize the reassuring contours of her brother and her cousin.

"You weren't there when we came back to camp, so we went looking for you," said Lester. "Everything all right?"

"Faval! Lester!" Patty shouted. "I'm so glad you're here!"

Faval blinked. "…Something wrong?"

Patty flipped over the nearest dead body, and Faval and Lester froze.

"I found a lot of other soldiers like this," said Patty, shaking. "All of them were left face down. It couldn't have been animals."

Lester opened his mouth to say something reasonable, but then closed it. "I got nothing."

"If anything attacks us, we're armed," said Faval. "We can take-"

AWOOO!

"Aaah!" screamed Faval. "Oh… only a wolf."

Lester started to laugh, but stopped once he found that no one else was joining in. "Let's… get back to camp, shall we?"

X

Meanwhile, the other members of the Liberation Army had pitched camp. As Nanna tended the fire cooking the deer Faval and Lester had caught, the other kids sat in a circle around the campfire. Bored with cleaning weapons and teasing each other, they started telling scary stories. With the experienced bard Lewyn and the studious Oifey both sleeping, they had to make do with each other.

Having spent plenty of time with the less… noble members of Sigurd's army, Shannan knew more than a few tales most princes wouldn't know. He recited a rather impressive fable regarding a cannibalistic mermaid, five jars of olive oil, an unlucky miser, half a dozen ghosts, and a duck.

"Seliph used to cry whenever I told him that story," Shannan added at the end, at which Seliph turned bright red. Leif giggled.

Then Finn told a chilling story about a monster that flayed people's skins. "Prince Leif used to hug his blanket whenever he heard that story," said Finn at the end.

"F-Finn!" a red-faced Leif stuttered. Everyone else laughed good-naturedly.

The mercenary-raised Aless knew a few stories that the older mercenaries told him, but he was so bad at storytelling that Larcei fell asleep. Apparently, it was about a highwayman with a red hat… or a red bandana. Or a red coat. One of those. So he rode out on a white horse—or was it a red horse and a white hat? Anyways, he went riding out to meet his lady love—did she wear a red dress or a green one? Doesn't matter, the highwayman's dead anyways.

To everyone's surprise, Julia was in the same boat as Aless. Even though she knew plenty of stories from Lewyn, Julia wasn't very good at telling them. "So then Lodir—I mean Loki tricked the mason—no, wait, he seduced him—no, he seduced the horse…"

Delmud happened to be unexpectedly skilled at suspense. Once he finished the story about vampires stalking the night, the other young soldiers begged him to tell them another one so that they could forget the first. So Delmud recounted another about a princess finding the truth behind cattle mutilation.

"And then…" said Delmud, "the fifth duchess opened the forbidden door…"

Johan gulped. Johalva grabbed Larcei's arm, but she shoved it off.

"And what did she find? Below the shivering floorboards, past the shadowy hallways, down the creaking staircase, and behind the forbidden door, she found-"

"We're back!"

"AAAAHH!" Johan grabbed his axe and swung in a wide arc, narrowly missing Aless.

Patty, Faval, and Lester emerged from the shadowy trees, stifling giggles. "I can't believe you-"

AWOOO!

"Aaahh!" all three hunters screamed in unison. "Oh…" said Patty. "Just a wolf…"

Ulster looked up. "Did something happen?"

"We're all here," said Tinny warily but reassuringly. "It's safe."

Patty and Lester both sat down, but didn't let go of their weapons. Faval didn't sit at all.

"Are you all right?" asked Lana. "You look tense-"

"There's something out there!" shouted Patty. "Something's been mutilating the corpses on the battlefield!"

Seliph and Leif both looked at her. "Nice try," said Leif. "But it will take more than that to scare us."

"It's too late to give us nightmares," said Seliph. "Delmud got to us first."

Patty looked confused for a second, and then realized what they were getting at. "It's true!" she shouted. "Show them, Lester!"

To reiterate her point, Lester pulled a dead body off of his horse.

Leen stared at it, and almost heaved. "Was that… really necessary?"

Faval shrugged. "Judging by your reactions, yes."

Lana rolled up her sleeves and stepped over to the body. "We found it face-down," said Patty. "An animal couldn't have turned it over. Not all those bodies."

Lana carefully turned the body over. "Hm…Besides the stomach wound, there's also an arrowhead in his neck. He probably died of that, and something came along later to do whatever it did to him."

"Why do you say that?" asked Ulster. "I mean, why do you think he died of arrows instead of… whatever happened to him?"

"I don't think anyone would mutilate someone first and then shoot an arrow in his neck," said Lana. "That would be overkill."

"I'd say that's way over overkill," said Faval.

Lester nudged him. "You can't get over overkill, Faval. Once you do that, it's already overkill."

Faval glared at him. "I'll overkill you!"

Lana stood up and pushed herself between her brother and her cousin, subsequently getting blood all over the three of them.

"Hey!" said Nanna. "If you get your clothes dirty, you'll be the one washing them!"

Leen looked up. "But… I thought it wasn't your turn to wash our clothes. Isn't it Delmud's?"

Nanna sighed. "Leif and I had to do the washing after Mother left, and Leif kept on getting his clothes dirty when it was my turn."

Shannan and Finn leaned closer to the body. "These wounds are strange," said Finn. "It doesn't look like it was cut as much as ripped. It doesn't show signs of gouging or stabbing, either."

"Why would anyone do this?" said Shannan. "There's no point in it. It would take too much time and effort to systematically do this to multiple corpses, assuming that a lot of them were like this."

"And the hearts were gone," said Patty.

All this took a moment to sink in.

"Do you think… it's a monster?" said Fee.

The soldiers took another moment for this to sink in.

Johalva gulped. "You know… we have killed a lot of people… they might still be mad at us."

This time, the soldiers took two moments. A wolf howled in the distance.

"… I heard that monsters fear silver," Julia said quietly, breaking the silence. "They also fear light and fire."

Everyone looked at one another, and then at each other's weapons. Seliph caught Ulster eying his Silver Sword. "Forget it!" said Seliph quickly. "This belonged to my father!"

"That didn't stop you from borrowing my Wing Clipper, did it?" said Ulster. "That also belonged to my father."

"You were too injured to even hold it! I was protecting you from the Dragon Knights until Nanna could help!"

Shannan remained nonplussed. "Just give it to him."

"Easy for you to say!" said Seliph. "You have a magical sword that can cut through anything!"

"…Fine then," said Ulster. "Let's see… we have one Silver Blade and another Silver Sword. Who has those?"

Delmud and Nanna raised their hands.

"You can have my Silver Sword," said Nanna. "I have a vampire sword."

"…You mean the Earth Sword?" said Delmud.

"I call it the vampire sword."

"… Please don't call it that anymore," said Seliph. "At least, not for another week."

The whole camp minus Delmud, Finn, Shannan, and Nanna collectively shuddered.

"Anyways, my v- Earth Sword can cast Resire, which is Light magic."

Ulster noticed Delmud's surprisingly tight hold on his Silver Blade. "I think I know what karma is now," said Ulster.

"… You don't think this is my fault, do you?" said Delmud. "You guys wanted to hear stories. I told you some."

"In that case, give me your Silver Blade," said Larcei.

"What? No."

"Come on."

"No."

"Fine then." Larcei drew her Hero Sword. "Give me your Silver Blade!"

Sister figure or not, Delmud saw someone in front of him drawing a sword. His instincts kicked in, and he brought his own sword around in a wide arc. Larcei ducked, and dropped into the stance for Meteor Sword…

What happened next was chaos. Ulster and Shannan dived at Larcei to get her to stop, but crashed into each other instead. Nanna tried to grab Delmud out of the way but Delmud almost decapitated her in the confusion. Leif and Seliph tried approach the pair but were wary of getting too close. Patty lunged at Larcei's ankles and pulled her back, but Larcei didn't loosen her grip on the sword even as she fell. Her sword landed right where Delmud was standing a second ago. The archer cousins Faval and Lester jumped back on reflex and crashed into Johan's horse. The horse reared up and almost crushed the pair had Lana not jerked them both out of the way.

"No, stop!" "Calm down!" "Put that sword away!"

"Everybody, be quiet!" Finn shouted. The entire camp stopped. Even the horse neighed softly and stepped down. Finn cleared his throat. "We are at war. We cannot afford to lose our heads at a time like this. And you turn your blade on a friend?"

Larcei and Delmud looked ashamed.

"Now look at each other, and apologize."

Larcei and Delmud both started talking at once. "But he-" "She started-"

Finn glared at them.

Larcei sighed. "I'm sorry that I tried to take your sword."

"And I'm sorry that I tried to resis—hey, why am I apologizing?! She drew first!"

"You almost killed her and Nanna," said Shannan.

"You both almost killed each other," said Finn.

Larcei and Delmud reluctantly shook hands.

"You're surprisingly good at this," Shannan whispered to Finn.

"I had to take care of Prince Leif and Princess Altena when they were still in Leonster," said Finn. "And I had to mediate between Prince Leif and Nanna when they were young."

"…I'm still keeping the Silver Blade," said Delmud.

Years of living together made the original resistance group practically siblings. Most friends played nice with each other and never hit each other. Close friends got into arguments but then made up, making them all the closer. Siblings hit each other, kicked, yelled, and fought, but ultimately knew they didn't have to apologize. They knew that they both felt guilty about it. Both Larcei and Delmud knew that after every fight, they were still friends underneath it all. Larcei did not pursue the subject further.

Of course, not all siblings are like that.

"Larcei!" called Johan. "I'll protect you with my Silver Axe-"

"No, Johan, I'll protect her with my Silver Axe-"

"But I bought that!"

"With Patty's money!"

The Dozel brothers fell into a fit of squabbling.

Fee rummaged through her many weapons and produced a Thunder Sword. "You can at least have this," she said to Larcei.

No one disputed Fee's claim to the Silver Lance, because the only other lance users didn't need it. Aless had the Mystletain, Leif had the Light Sword, Nanna had the Earth Sword, and Finn wasn't afraid of the monsters. Faval handed his Silver Bow to Lester without any fuss.

"…Ced, can I have your Lightning spell?" Tinny asked nervously.

Ced handed it over dubiously. "I have the Forseti, so I don't need this, but… can you even use Light magic?" He looked around, and then are Julia. "Are we the only people who can use Light Magic?"

"I can!" said Leif. "I mean… hypothetically…" [1]

"Fire magic is a better bet," said Ced. "I don't have any tomes on me-"

Arthur dug up a Fire out of his pack. "I keep one in case I run into another Wind mage," he explained.

"Wouldn't lightning be just as effective?" asked Fee. "It can light stuff on fire if handed properly."

"Point taken," said Tinny.

Tinny noticed Lana shaking a little. "Here," said Tinny. "Take this. I have Elthunder."

"Thank you," said Lana.

"Delmud, please give me your Fire Sword," said Ulster. "You already have a Silver Blade."

Delmud looked at Ulster. Ulster looked at Delmud. Delmud handed over the Fire Sword.

"Hey, wait," said Leen. "What about me? I can't use magic swords or Silver Swords."

"You can sleep in the same tent as me," said Fee. "If they're afraid of silver, then they should avoid me and whoever's around me."

"By that logic, we really didn't have to bother with bartering," said Ulster. "We could have one person with a silver weapon in every tent, and we wouldn't be bothered."

"That is, assuming that the monster is afraid of silver at all," said Delmud.

Everyone paused. Then everyone started talking at once.

At this point, Lewyn and Oifey woke up and came around to see what all the commotion was. "Did something happen?" asked Oifey.

"It's too late for you to be out," said Lewyn. "Get to bed."

Fee and Ced glared at him, and Fee debated staying up late just to spite her father.

"B-b-but there's a monster out there!" said Johalva.

"Then ring the camp with silver coins or something," said Lewyn.

"But what if the monster isn't afraid of silver?" said Patty?

"They are," said Lewyn. "Just do it. You'll feel better afterwards."

The soldiers looked at one another, and ended up plastering their savings to trees. Afterwards, they bolted down the deer and went to their tents. They tended to jump at shadows on their way to bed.

That night, none of the kids could sleep. Nanna huddled underneath the thickest blanket she could find despite the summer heat, leaving only a small hole open to breathe.

Half an hour after Oifey called lights out, a whisper emerged from the girls' tent "Psst!"

Nanna looked at her tentmate, Patty. "You can't sleep either?" said Nanna..

"Not after that…" Patty gripped her Wind sword. "Do you really think we're safe?"

"Not really," said Leen.

"I'm here," said Julia. "Any monster that's out there would be afraid of light magic."

"Let's kill whatever's out there before it kills us," said Larcei. "You stay in the tent, Leen."

"What? No! What if it comes while you're gone?"

"How about we all come together?" said Patty.

"I don't think we should go," said Lana. "There are still enemy soldiers out there. We need to rest."

"Do you think we can sleep with a monster out there?" retorted Larcei.

The girls mulled this over. "Probably not," said Fee.

Lana sighed. "I'm supposed to take care of all of you. If that means staying up a bit later, that's better than not sleeping at all."

The girls got up and snuck out of their tent. "Okay," said Patty. "Let's split up into groups of three-"

"Fat chance," said Leen.

"So that we can't get snuck up on," finished Patty. "If we get in a circle, back to back, then we can see everything."

"Wouldn't that be awkward and hard to maneuver?" said Fee.

"It's better than getting eaten," said Tinny.

"All right, so who's going with who?" said Leen. "I call Julia on my team."

"Does Julia get a choice in the matter?" said Lana.

"N… okay then."

"It's fine," said Julia. "I want to protect you."

"I vote myself on your team," said Patty. "You have Resire."

"What? No!" said Fee. "We should split into groups with one Silver weapon user and one mage or magic sword user. Larcei, you go with them."

"What? No!" said Larcei, making wide gestures with her Thunder Sword. "You can't just—EEEHIYAH!" Larcei had hit something while waving her sword.

"EEE—HIYAH!" Whatever Larcei had hit had spun around and slashed at her. Tinny raised her hand to cast Elthunder-

"Wait!" called the shadowy figure.

Julia raised her hand, and a faint silvery glow emitted from nowhere. The light brightened slowly, bathing the campsite in silvery light and revealing the other half of the army.

The girls then saw that the boys had the same idea as they. All of them were carrying their weapons. Ulster had almost eviscerated Larcei in the confusion. "Sorry… we're all a bit on edge."

Patty looked at the boys' group. "Where's Shannan? And Oifey and Lewyn and Finn?" she added as an afterthought.

"They're all sleeping," said Seliph. "They said they weren't afraid of monsters."

"And Oifey said that if we stayed up too late, they would at least be able to defend us against the enemy tomorrow," added Delmud.

There was a pause. The light flickered a little.

Julia cleared her throat. "Um… can someone light a-"

"Hey, Seliph, do you have a plan?" Larcei interrupted.

Seliph shook his head. "We… could split up?"

"No!" everyone said in unison.

"We… could split up into groups?" said Seliph.

"No!"

"…We could all go in one big group," resorted Seliph.

"What, with all our horses?" said Johan.

"Then ditch the horses," said Seliph.

"But I can't use an axe without a horse!" said Johan.

"Then bring the horse."

"I… you're going to have to light something soon," Julia said as she made the light bounce a little, but she was ignored.

"But then it would be too loud and might trample the rest of us," said Ulster.

"Then don't bring the horse and just swing the axe normally."

"And I get the Silver Axe, right?"

"No, I get the Silver Axe!"

"So none of us get horses," said Aless.

"Right. And Fee doesn't get her pegasus."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, but it's only fair."

"Are we carrying torches?" said Leif.

"We don't need torches, we have Julia," said Seliph.

Julia cleared her throat. "Um… I don't think I can hold this for-"

"Oh… right. Sorry, force of habit. We used to fight at night a lot," admitted Leif.

"That seems… dangerous," said Ulster.

"Hence the torches," said Nanna, to whom the delightful task of lighting torches and Torch Staves was normally delegated to.

"But wouldn't having a torch mean that you were an easier target?" said Faval.

Leif shrugged. "It didn't matter. For some reason, all our enemies had night vision."

"Didn't Salem say that he used to be able to see in the dark until the very moment he joined us?" said Nanna.

"Yeah," said Leif. "That was weird, because he was knocking people out over a mile away in the dark using a Sleep Staff with no plausible means of visibility the minute before we captured him."

"That's nice, but Light Spells aren't meant to-"

"Wait… Captured?" said Ced.

"Yup. We used to knock people out and take all their stuff," said Delmud. "It's weird."

"And occasionally, they would join us," said Nanna.

"Nice way to make friends," said Aless.

"Lana, you should take over-"

"They joined us of their own free will," said Nanna in a dignified manner.

"Except for Lifis," said Leif. "He really didn't have a choice. But he deserved it. Anyways, after Salem joined us, he had trouble navigating a building he was presumably living in for a long period of time just because it was nighttime."

"And lighting a torch in the building somehow lit the corridors that we really shouldn't have been able to see from our vantage point, so let's stop talking now," said Nanna.

"Er… guys?" said Julia. "Don't panic."

And then the lights went out.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"Mother!"

"That's my foot!"

"That's my arm!"

"Let go of me!"

"Hey! Guys! I think I found the-"

BAM! FWOOOSH!

There was a blinding flash.

"AAHHH!"

"Father!"

"That was my leg!"

"Get off of me!"

"Sorry! Light spells aren't meant to be used this way!" said Julia quickly. The light dimmed into a slight glow that was barely bright enough to see where everything was. The soldiers all let out groans of relief.

"If I can't shoot straight tomorrow, it's your fault," moaned Faval.

"Right…" sighed Julia. "Sorry. I was rushing. It's not a good idea to use light magic if you need a sustained light. Light magic requires you to focus for every second it is lit."

"If possible, use fire magic," added Ced. "Light magic is hard to support. Fire magic is hard to put out."

Lana obligingly made a small fireball with her Fire Tome. Julia let the silvery light fade. The flickering light was rather eerie.

"So… where are we going, anyways?" said Seliph.

Everyone stared at him. "I thought you had a plan," said Aless.

"I thought this was an elaborate prank," said Ulster.

"I thought I told you this was past your bedtime," said Lewyn.

"Aaahh!"

The kids all spun around, and saw the four adults, looking distinctly ruffled. Oifey, Shannan, and Lewyn were all in pajamas, coats slung over their shoulders.

"I told you not to worry," said Lewyn, his arms crossed. "Seriously. You've fought soldiers, kings, and Holy Weapon users, and you're scared of monsters?"

Before any of the kids could rise to challenge this slight against their courage, Oifey quickly said, "We're going to watch the camp. You go to bed."

"In your pajamas?" said Ulster.

Oifey looked at his clothes, and then at everyone else's. "We did get dressed… Couldn't you tell?"

The kids took a closer look at the adults. Oifey had put his armored coat on over his pajamas. Finn was wearing his regular riding armor, but knowing him, he probably never took it off to begin with. Shannan and Lewyn's regular clothes didn't offer that much more protection, so it looked like they didn't bother to change.

"Not really," said Johan, who took about an hour to put on all of his armor every day.

"You're going to have to take care of us tomorrow, though," said Shannan. "First thing I learned in Sigurd's army. All-nighters aren't cheap."

Oifey looked at him. "And how did you learn this?"

"…Remember Dew?"

"Ah."

"Anyways, get to bed," said Finn. "We'll be sleeping in tomorrow, so you go rest."

"And I still have a magical sword that can cut through anything," said Shannan.

The kids reluctantly left.

"Do you really think they can take the monster?" said Patty.

Ulster shrugged. "It's impossible to live with Shannan and Oifey for an extended period of time without thinking they can't."

"If Finn kept me and Nanna safe for this long, I would think he'd be fine," said Leif.

"And Father used to say that Lewyn once one-shotted an entire squadron of knights with just an Elwind," said Nanna.

"Then why doesn't he actually help us out in battle anymore?" said Ulster.

"I… don't know," said Seliph. "Something about a leg injury?"

"But even I could heal it if he stayed for a day or two," said Lana.

"And he did Ced the Forseti, so he's down that," added Seliph.

"But you just said he was just fine with Elwind," said Fee.

"And don't say anything about him being too old to fight," said Nanna. "Father's not that much younger, and he's a physical fighter."

"Maybe he lost his… You know, we really should ask him about that one day," said Ced. "Mages don't just lose their strength over the years. He'd have to not use magic for a long time… and I really don't think that's possible if he's travelling alone."

"…Come to think of it, what happened to the corpse Patty brought in earlier?" said Ulster.

_Squelch_.

"Ew. I think I found it," said Leen.

Meanwhile, the four adults waited around the perimeter of camp. Once they heard snoring, they all gathered together at the edge of the camp bordering the forest.

"Full circle, I suppose," said Oifey, taking a swig of something hot and strong. "Catch."

Shannan caught the leather flask and took a sip. "Remember the vampire scare?"

Finn nodded. "Back in Augustria? I remember how you bought all those mirrors off that red haired woman."

"And I remember how you made Noish cook pasta with extra garlic that night," said Shannan.

"And I remember how you all jumped down my throat and Ferry's when we choked on the garlic," said Lewyn. "We had never had it before. It doesn't grow in Silesse."

"But then you passed the test when we touched the Gae Bolg to your forehead," said Shannan. "So it all worked out."

"You wanted Quan to touch the tip of the lance to my forehead, not the butt," said Lewyn. "I thought he was going to skewer me."

"Like I said, it all worked out."

"You took my panicking as a sign that I was a vampire, when any reasonable person would have been scared of being stabbed by a man with a lance." Lewyn's voice was starting to raise.

"We never did find out if there really was a vampire," said Oifey quickly. "Do you think there was one?"

"If there was, it probably got incinerated in that fire barrier you asked Azel to put up," said Finn. "Lord Sigurd let you do that because he thought it would deter the Augustrians as well."

"And then Azel burned down half the forest when Lex shouted 'Surprise!'" said Shannan.

"And that is why I never bothered to use fire magic in battle," said Lewyn.

"I suppose it worked," said Oifey. "We didn't get attacked that night. Good times."

"If by good times, you mean waiting in a castle occupied by the country that was at war with the country that I am the prince of, practically unarmed, with only one battle-worthy person in the area, then having that person being kidnapped and brought to who knows where by a strange man, then running across a battlefield with only one sword and zero experience in war to look for someone I'm not sure is actually going to still be alive and present at the point I intend to meet him at, then yes," said Shannan. "Oh, and having said person's best friend being killed and having to deal with the emotional fallout."

"Still, at least you weren't in danger of the Child Hunts," said Oifey.

"…There is that."

"Do you think the kids will be all right?" said Lewyn. "We were, but…"

"We're moving out tomorrow," said Finn. "Even if there is a monster, it wouldn't follow us. We're riding horses."

"… I need to take a leak," said Lewyn. He got up and ran into the woods.

"Do you think he'll be all right?" said Oifey.

"I've seen him fight," said Shannan. "It's impossible to live with him for several years without knowing he'll be fine."

"And I told you about the time he one-shotted an entire squardron of knights with only an Elwind," said Finn.

Oifey looked up. "I suppose… He's gotten all of us out of binds for so many years…"

"Then why doesn't he fight anymore?" said Shannan. "Even if he's rusty, he would help a lot in battle. And even out of battle; he can heal. And you're not that much younger, Finn."

Finn gave Shannan a light glare.

"I… something about a leg injury?" said Oifey. "We really should ask him someday."

Meanwhile, Lewyn had arrived at the edge of the battlefield. "Let's see… water, check… change of clothes, check… Elfire tome, check…"

He hung his scarf on a nearby tree branch, and kneeled down at the nearest corpse. "You probably didn't deserve this," he muttered as he ripped open the unhappy victim's chest. He began to eat.

THE END

[1] Leif can hypothetically use Light Magic: As a Master Knight, he can use Light Magic level C… but the only tomes are B or higher.

Yup… Lewyn's a ghoul. He eats dead people. I think ghouls are undead.

If you were wondering what the Elfire was for, it was to incinerate the corpse when he was done, as to not arouse suspicion.


End file.
